When Valve kicked out Portal in 2007, it helped in a lot of ways to redefine puzzle games in general, and first-person puzzle games in particular. Portal’s intricate puzzles and often high-energy solutions made use of the best elements of the FPS genre, creating a gameplay experience that was exciting as well as intellectually challenging.

It’s hard not to compare Magrunner: Dark Pulse to Portal. They’re first-person puzzlers in which players bounce around different rooms, although instead of quantum pathways from one location to another, Magrunner is all about changing the magnetic field of different objects. Players are constantly moving objects by making them attract or repulse one another, manipulating physics in a lot of similar ways to what Portal required. But Magrunner to differentiate itself fairly well, while leaning on a lot of the same ideas that made Portal so much fun.

But where Portal told a hilarious story of science gone awry, Magrunner further distances itself from Valve’s elephant in the room by turning that elephant into a winged, betentacled god from beyond the stars. Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos, Magrunner is actually a horror game hiding behind an easygoing puzzle component. Imagine that, instead of finding out the cake was a lie in Portal, the Old Ones showed up and drove you insane with their horrific visages. That’s Magrunner.

Magrunner follows the story of a young man named Dax who has applied to become a Magrunner, a breed of astronaut who will work with the complex “MagTech,” the ability to alter the magnetic polarities of a number of different objects. Like Portal’s controls, players have the ability to fire bursts of energy that affect different items: click LMB to fire a red pulse, representing, say, a positive charge; click RMB to fire a green pulse, representing negative. Two polarities of the same color attract, while opposite polarities repel.

Though it’s actually the opposite of how magnets work in reality, solving puzzles with the colored bursts of MagTech becomes pretty intuitive after a point. The story has Dax heading off to the MagTech Corporation’s test facility, ostensibly to audition to become a Magrunner, and the entirety of the game is basically working through test chambers, solving puzzles. Sometimes these involve using certain machines and reversed polarities to shoot objects across gaps, or to open certain doors, or circumvent turrets. There’s a whole lot of similarity between Magrunner and Portal in the construction of test chambers and solutions, which actually works to the game’s advantage. There’s a lot of familiarity here, which makes Magrunner accessible, but the puzzles are different and disparate enough that the magnetic mechanic makes things feel fresh.

But it’s the Lovecraftian focus of Magrunner that really makes it stand apart from games such as Quantum Conundrum and the Portal series. Before too long, the Magrunner tests go to hell, with monstrous creatures appearing in the test chambers and stranger and stranger areas becoming accessible to Dax. Frogwares manages to imbue the entire game with a real sense of dread and a deadly atmosphere; you’re not just solving puzzles now, you’re looking for the escape you so desperately need, and you never know what might be waiting in the next chamber.

The Lovecraft story itself is pretty standard fare, and players who’ve read anything of the author or played any other Lovecraft-inspired games will feel a lot of familiarity here. The story itself isn’t necessarily a standout, but it does do enough to keep the usual stuff — solving puzzles and exploring the facility as it becomes weirder and weirder — interesting in its own right.

By way of introduction, I should say: I am a massive Sherlock Holmes fan. Ever since “The Speckled Band” sent me to sleep terrified of the radiator’s hiss, I have been devouring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation and the many fictions it has inspired.

It was no surprise, then, that I was taken with The Testament of Sherlock Holmes when I saw it at E3. Now completed after a 15-hour playthrough, does the game live up to its positive first impression?

The answer to that question, to put it with un-Holmesian inexactness, is “sort of.” That’s not to say that Ukranian developers Frogwares don’t get a lot right. For one thing, they have a fan’s love of the source material, which means they nail what had to be nailed: the characters of Holmes and Watson.

It starts with the writing, which is plausibly Victorian and occasionally quite funny. The line “it will fall as flat as one of Mrs. Hudson’s souffles” cracked my girlfriend up, one room over. Sure, they may have had five previous Holmes games to practice on, but Frogwares could still teach bigger, richer studios a thing about interesting dialogue.

I was also particularly impressed by the voice acting, which builds on the writing to capture Holmes’ Asperger’s arrogance and Watson’s earnest bluster, the latter played (cleverly) for laughs. The game also brought the pair’s unlikely friendship to life in conversation — their personality clashes are key to the characters’ long-time success.

You’ll control both Holmes and Watson before the game is through, with interesting results. Holmes is always telling Watson what to do, and when playing as the affable doctor, you’re always one step behind, trying to follow the master detective’s thought process. This sense of uncertainty increases the dramatic tension, but also provides a surprising video game parallel. Holmes’ penchant for giving orders and Watson’s unwillingness (or inability) to disobey them resembles the relationship between a game and a gamer. “The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!” games are always saying. “But…” we stutter through our mustaches, then do whatever they say. If Frogwares had had the gumption to make a game in which you control Watson the whole time, following Holmes around and doing his bidding, while trying to figure out his motives, what a game it might have been.

I wasn’t expecting much when I sat down to check out The Testament of Sherlock Holmes at E3 2012, but it ended up being one my favorite games at the show. Developed by European studio Frogwares, the title is the sixth in a series of Holmes adaptations for various platforms. As a die-hard fan of the character and a long-time adventure game enthusiast, I left the booth feeling like I had been missing out on something great.

Testament… made a striking first impression with its beautiful, detailed Victorian environments, which provided the perfect setting for the world’s greatest detective to ply his trade in, and provide crucial immersion into the world of Sherlock Holmes. The character models were similarly well-executed — Frogwares’ Holmes is based on actor Jeremy Brett, who played the character in a successful series of adaptations for British television — personal favorites of mine since childhood. In general, the quality of the 3D graphics is far higher than what players have come to expect in adventure games, without compromising that genre’s distinctive strengths.

At various points in the game, players will control Holmes, Watson, and even the bloodhound, Toby, whose keen sense of smell is often useful. The writing and voice acting for the principals and the supporting cast was consistently impressive — no small achievement, considering the period setting. Holmes’ arrogance, Watson’s bluff innocence, the confusion of NPC’s not sure how to react to the great detective’s eccentricities — it was all there.

Two investigation set-pieces were made available in LA: a case involving a stolen necklace, and a grisly murder of an archbishop. Both crimes will be woven into a larger intrigue; according Frogware’s representative, Holmesians have provided a lot of positive feedback about the company’s contributions to the canon. That said, in Testament… the developers have opted for a more gruesome, gorey presentation than some fans will be used to.

Gameplay provides a mix of investigation, deduction, and puzzle solving. Investigating the environments for clues will remind some players of L.A. Noire — not exactly pixel-hunting, but more an exercise in carefully combing the scene until all the clues — signified by button prompts — are found. Players can use both a 1st- and 3rd-person camera, and some scenes of close scrutiny — the archbishop’s mangled body, for example — trigger their own perspectives.

Holmes will also occasionally deploy a tool like a tape measure or his distinctive magnifying glass to gather information — one sequence in the demo asked players to measure various footprints and then decide how many people had been in the room. Such revelations are then combined with the clues found through visual investigation and those divined through conversation with NPC’s on a “deduction board.” This is a gamified flow-chart that gives players a framework for arriving at the correct conclusions. Trial-and-error can yield some results, but overall, the deduction system is challenging, neither too simple nor too frustrating.

The game also includes a variety of puzzles, which are generally creative and satisfying. One sequence in the demo involving a kind of stylized chess problem almost made me late for my next appointment — I wasn’t about concede defeat. After finishing a particular set-piece, players can choose which leads to pursue, and in what order — a pleasant piece of branching storytelling that must have given the Frogwares writing staff fits.

Thanks to its AAA production values, unapologetic adventure gameplay, and its slam-dunk take on the source material, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is a must-play for me when it releases this September. Now, I realize that in my case, Frogwares is preaching to the converted, but if you like adventure or mystery, consider picking up this underhyped gem.